Boiler Room 5s: we speak to the men behind the action by Aaron› 3 Aug 2012

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Bringing together some of the finest record labels,
magazines and clothing stores from London and around the UK in a 5-a-side
tournament, Boiler Room 5s is set to be one of the most stylish sporting events
in the capital this weekend. Kicking off
on Hackney Downs on Saturday, it’ll see sixteen teams in customised Umbro kits
battling it out for the trophy, accompanied by Boiler Room DJs, a barbeque and
hopefully some decent weather. Ahead of the 5s, we spoke to Blaise and Thristian
from Boiler Room about their tournament, and their plans for the future. Here’s
what they had to say…

So, it looks like the Boiler Room 5s is a bit bigger this
year?

'Yeah, our office is like a factory at the moment, there’s
nothing but boxes everywhere. We’ve got about 150 people playing, and then
there’s all the other people that’ll be coming along to watch. We decided to
make it bigger this year because when we came to deciding on the teams there
was so much interest. I think last year’s tournament really caught people’s
attention. So we spoke to Hackney Council and they gave us the opportunity to
play at Hackney Downs, which is a lot bigger than where we were last year. 8
teams is pretty restrictive in terms of all the people we know and want to come
along, so 16 teams just allows us to open it up a bit more.'

It’s been really nice to see the teams that are involved
getting excited about the tournament and talking to each other in ways that
they might not do so normally, magazines and record labels talking to each
other and getting excited about their kits. I wish all our collaborations could
be like this!

Do you think you’ll continue to grow the tournament?

'We’re keen to keep the whole thing active throughout the
year, last year we did the tournament and then that was pretty much it. I think
now we’ve setup Boiler Room FC we can keep the whole thing alive, with our own mini
leagues, tournaments, hangouts, football screenings, that kind of thing. I
think there’ll be more opportunities over the year through friendlies and our
weekly training sessions to open it up to even more teams. Even this year with
16 teams we’ve had a lot of names that wanted to take part but couldn’t, so
there’s definitely ways in which we can open it up more. Equally, we want it to
stay fun, you know? We want the football to be good, but we don’t want it to
become too serious. Everything we’ve done with Umbro has been pretty
light-hearted, and we want it to stay like that. I think that’s why everyone
wants to get involved, because they’re competitive and serious about it, but
that’s not the only thing – it feels like an extended group of friends taking
part.'

What were the highlights for you from last year’s 5s
tournament?

'It was amazing. We had torrential rain, proper British
weather, but everyone had such a good time.
Some sports brand football events you go to are way over the top on
producing the whole thing, but this one felt like a real family affair –
everyone we know got involved, our friends drew the lines, made the trophy, the
golden boot, the scoreboards, designed all the tee’s etc. Seeing it all draw
together, everyone spraying champagne everywhere at the end, leaping around
like maniacs, it was amazing. Everyone came together to make it what it was,
seeing it all turn out like that after we we’d been stressing for a month and
not being sure how it was going to turn out, that was the highlight for us.'

Away from the football, what else have you got going on?

'Well, we’re going to have a barbeque going, run by our pal Josephine
from Sit Down Affair (and who also painted the windows at the Boiler Room
studio, photo attached), to feed all the players, and we’re telling everyone to
bring their own picnics / bbqs / booze with, or just come hang out, show the
teams support, have a dance, have a good time. We’ll have a soundsystem down
there, all the teams are going to DJ, some of us from Boiler Room will be
DJing, that kind of vibe, all underpinned by some intense rivalry on the pitch!
We’re going to broadcast it this year as well, we’ll have a couple of webcams
set up so people online can watch the DJ sets and get the jist of what’s
happening on the pitches.'

NTS were the winners last year, can you see anyone else
claiming the prize this weekend?

'NTS will be the one for us – they embody such a big collective
of DJs and people around this area that they’re going to be hard to beat again.
At the same time we hope some of the other teams will surprise us, in fact BNTL
will probably do some damage.'

How come there isn’t a Boiler Room team this year?

'Firstly, we just didn’t have space – we took out the Boiler
Room team and the Umbro team because so many other people wanted to play. So
we’ve both taken a bit more of a back seat on this one, so that we can
concentrate on hosting it. Although saying that, I think half the people from
Boiler Room FC are playing in one of the teams as they’re all friends….'

What’s the idea behind Boiler Room FC?

'It came out of last year’s 5s competition really, and
wanting to extend that it into something else. It started with Thristian
getting a few people down on a Monday night for a regular game, and it’s just
grown from there really. It’s just a way to do some training, hang out, watch
some games together, just an informal thing. From there it’s got more serious,
training regularly with about 30 people in our squad and we’re starting to
arrange some friendly games. It’s just something that’s happened quite naturally.'

And is the Boiler Room FC website an extension of that?

'When we started planning about how we wanted it to develop,
that was part of it, it’s a way of bringing together all these different people
we know through football, showing that side of us that people might not know
about. At the moment, it’s very much concentrating on the 5s tournament, but
we’ve also got plans for it to develop into a lot more – we’ve got friends who
are great designers that are going to do some football-themed stuff for us,
it’s just an open-ended way for us show this side of our personality. We can
link to the regular side Boiler Room and what we do there, but also take it off
in another direction and let it do its own thing.'

Thanks to Blaise and Thristian for speaking to us. Boiler Room 5s kicks off on Hackney Downs on Saturday 4th
August around midday – take a look at fc.boilerroom.tv for more details.

All the kits worn on the day come from Umbro’s current
teamwear range, which allows football teams at any level to style their own
strip – head to www.umbrofootballkits.com
for more details.